The Juma Al Majid Centre for Culture and Heritage in Dubai held an online seminar to mark International Archives Day, observed annually on 9 June. Participants included Dr Essam Obeid, an associate professor specialising in knowledge management, organisational learning and intelligent archiving systems; cybersecurity consultant Abdalnour Sami; and Ahmed Obeid, a consultant and trainer in document management and electronic archiving.
A Financial and Intellectual Resource
Dr Essam opened the seminar by discussing the need for institutions and companies to invest in electronic archiving. This contributes to progress and continuous improvement, while making use of the knowledge contained in documents as a financial, intellectual, social and cultural resource. It also helps create sustainable development that preserves institutional memory and encourages staff to recognise the administrative importance of protecting records and documents.
Abdalnour Sami then addressed the importance of information security systems in protecting digital archives: “The wave of digital transformation has increased data consumption and storage. Every home now needs a personal or family digital archive to document and preserve important files, documents and visual material, preventing their loss or damage. Information security best practices must be applied so that these files do not leak or fall into malicious hands.”
At the end of the seminar, Ahmed Obeid discussed photographic archives and the challenges facing institutions that preserve history and heritage in storing and archiving photographs. He noted that photographs differ from texts, requiring different archiving and preservation methods as well as personnel with different qualifications.